The Amazing Avengers
by marvellyfe
Summary: Natasha is assigned to find out who Spider-Man is and bring him into the Avengers, and it turns out that he's going to be a bit more trouble than was bargained for. ((Happens after The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Age of Ultron. May contain slight spoilers, but not too bad. Stays in canon mostly))
1. Chapter 1

"Agent Romanoff. I have a mission for you."

"Yes?" the super spy replied.

"You'll need to talk to Stark about this one," Director Fury growled. It wasn't that he was angry with her answer, it was that he was always growling.

"I'm okay with that. What is it you have in mind?"

"I need some information. Ever heard of Spider-Man?"

* * *

Peter Parker whooped as he flipped around in the open air. He'd always loved the feeling of freedom that he got from doing his morning rounds. He just loved New York City, even more so at six a.m., when the hustle begins and the new day of crime starts. Just a couple weeks off his depression-induced vacation time, Spider-Man was ready to show the world he was ready to protect them once more. Plus, it felt good to retrain his muscles for his type of work again.

Peter knew that he had to take advantage of the next few months he had before he started college in the fall, something that had been delayed for a year by the death of his girlfriend, Gwen Stacy.

He still visited her grave, he still felt sad, but it no longer consumed him like it once had. Peter Parker was happy once more, but still so utterly alone. Now, nobody alive knew his secret. Anyone who had ever found out had died, so the Web Crawler decided that he would never entrust anyone with his secret identity again.

Peter stopped swinging for a moment to cling to a wall to observe the area. He was clinging to the Avenger's tower, his favorite place to stop to see what was going on. He hadn't felt any trouble in him yet, but there was always trouble to be had in the Big Apple.

He crawled up onto Ironman's flat landing strip, intending to jump off the edge and use that momentum to get around faster. Plus, it looked hella rad when he did a backwards dive off of high buildings. He boosted himself up with his enhanced muscles and found himself face to face with none other than the Black Widow.

Without blinking, she spoke into her phone, "Yep. He's right here, same place, same time as you said. Thanks, Tony. Talk to you later." She hung up.

Peter's jaw dropped. Natasha Romanoff was right there, looking at him, _talking_ about him. Natasha Romanoff. Of course Peter didn't get starstruck.

Natasha waited for him to say something, and then grinned at his sudden silence. "Ya know, you're a lot more talkative on the TV."

Natasha Romanoff watched him on the TV. Natasha Romanoff knew who he was. Natasha Romanoff addressed him directly. "You-you're Natasha Romanoff!"

Black Widow chuckled, and then flat out laughed. After a moment, the assassin/spy said, "So the famous Spider-Man knows who I am? Well that's reassuring."

Peter let out a nervous laugh. "I'm a fan of your work." He'd only been worshiping the woman before him since he'd seen what she'd done when the aliens showed up, not even mentioning how cool he thought she was when the whole Ultron thing happened, and now she knew the young man's name. The whole situation made Peter feel hazy.

"Do you want to come inside?" she asked. "I want to talk to you."

Suddenly, Peter was on guard. "What about?" he asked tentatively.

"Oh, well, I guess it would be better to try a direct approach. I want you to join the Avengers."

Peter's eyebrows went up and his jaw went down. "Are you being for serious?" A blush rose to his face that he was glad the mask hid. Why couldn't he talk straight for once?

Natasha smiled. "Only if you are. Want to come inside now? I'm sure your arms must hurt from staying in that position for the past few minutes."

Peter looked down at himself and realized that he had been in the half-way out of the pool position on one of the highest buildings of New York City. He boosted himself the rest of the way up and jogged slightly to catch up with his idol, trying to forget the fact that his arms felt like jelly.

When they got to the sliding glass door that would get him into Mr Stark's living room, Spider-Man froze. What if this was a trap? He didn't feel his Spidy senses go off, but that didn't mean that something in the whole situation could be fishy. Why now? Why not when he defeated Doctor Connors? Why not after Gwen died?

Before Romanoff could realize his pause, Peter started walking again, deciding to be on his guard, but honestly, how bad could it be? They were both the good guys.

"Have a seat," she invited, "Want a drink?"

"No, thanks," Peter replied, still standing.

"Oh, come on, I insist," the spy was already making something.

Peter folded his arms. Besides still being under the drinking age, he didn't want to feel too homey when he smelled trouble. "I'd rather not lift my mask. My suit deteriorates JARVIS's ability to scan me." Plus, his DNA would be all over that cup.

Natasha's eyes sparkled. "You must actually be a fan of the Avenger's work if you know JARVIS."

"I just really like Technology Science, and JARVIS is a bit of an anomaly."

"I bet you do. Tell me, did you personally make those web shooters?"

Peter glanced down at his wrists. "Yes, actually. Took me weeks to get right."

"That's amazing. I've always been a fan of what you do, but I had no idea that you were so talented. Did you make the rest of your powers as well?"

"No, I just made the web shooters to match. Quicker way to get around, too."

"Nice," she never touched her drink. "How did the rest of your powers come then?"

"Listen, I'd love to tell you, but you haven't exactly given me the best basis of why you want to know this stuff. How can I be sure of your intentions? You said you wanted me on your team, but where's the proof that's not just an empty promise?"

She chuckled. "You're a smart kid, Sp-"

Peter cut across him. "Who said anything about being a kid?"

Natasha smiled kindly. "I meant kid like a general term. How old are you anyway?"

"Be a little more subtle than that, Miss Widow."

Natasha laughed good-naturedly. "Oh, thank God. I was starting to think that the quick wit was just a act for the cameras. No way did I want another smart wet blanket on the team. We already have Bruce."

"Speaking of, where's everybody else? Isn't this supposed to be Avenger's Central?"

"This is a more of a come-and-go place. Some people, especially heroes, prefer accommodating themselves. In return, we ask for them to show up and help out when the world starts melting down. I have a feeling you'd like that arrangement, Spider-Man?"

"Sounds about right. So what's the catch?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do I have to do to be on the team? I mean, I'm already doing most of the things you guys do, sure if I join your team I can be at your beck and call, but it doesn't make sense to add me onto the team." He knew what they wanted, but he wanted to make her say it, partly because he wished it weren't true. Peter had been dreaming of being invited to the Avengers since its creation, but there are some things that he just couldn't give up.

Natasha didn't seem disturbed, and shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, your name would be a given, and-"

"Sorry. I'll have to pass you up on your offer. I have some people I have to protect." Peter started backing to the door.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. offers full confidentiality," she said, trying to get him to stop. "Nobody outside of us would know."

"Unless another little spill happens again. Just like what happened a few months ago," he gave her a pointed look through his mask. "Now, if you excuse me, I have work to do." He nodded at her somewhat thoughtful face. "Gotta pay for webbing somehow. Have a nice day." He did a tiny salute.

"Wait. Spider-Man. I just want you to know that the offer always stands. You know where to find me."

"Thanks, Black Widow, but unless you're willing to be cool with not knowing who I am, I can't see our paths crossing again. 'Bye." Peter opened the door, sprinted to the edge of the building, and launched himself off.

* * *

"Honestly, I'm impressed by the guy. He held up pretty well, barely have me anything on himself, good at directing the conversation away from his personal life. He would give me little meaningless bits of information so I wouldn't pry too much, and then put me in an awkward position to ask him more questions without telling him something. Brushed away all my tactics. He'd make a good spy." Natasha told to Director Fury through her phone.

"What did you learn?" Nick snapped.

"Definitely male. Older than 16, younger than 25. Skinny but firm, most likely white. In between 5''10' and 6 feet. He definitely has a family member he lives with that don't know who he is. Most likely a woman in a motherly position. He's smart, would've had school science and math awards. Add that up with the stuff with we already have, another conversation with him, I'll know for sure."

"Good. We need to know who this guy is, and make sure he never goes into retirement again. When he disappeared, crime everywhere went up by 38 percent. In New York City, it went up by 83 percent. If we don't get him with S.H.E.I.L.D., bad things will happen. He's too unstable to leave alone. Put the information you learned together with Stark's and start eliminating people off the list of possible Spider-Mans."

"Will do, Director."

"I want his name on my desk by the end of the week."

"I'll have that and more by Friday."

"Then make it Thursday."


	2. Chapter 2

"Our best bet is to try to corner him and talk to him again, take him in by force if necessary. He didn't show up again at the Avenger's tower yesterday, and I doubt he'll be back for a few more weeks until tensions die down a little. He'll probably find some other sort of building to cling to when he gets his barrings this morning."

"Tony, you know that if he sees one of us, he'll know it's a trap."

"We could send the twins out. They haven't gotten as much media coverage as the rest of us, so the likelihood he'll recognize them is down by a lot. I think the only time they were on TV was when Spidy was dormant."

"Good idea. Which spots do you think he'd be most partial to hanging out on?"

* * *

Peter Parker put on his work suit. His Spider-Man suit, exactly. To save up for college, he was working two jobs, but thankfully they both had flexible hours. He was doing his first one right now, which was taking pictures of Spider-Man for the Daily Bugle. It didn't pay much, but it only took him about three minutes to take a good picture of himself.

Mr Jameson said that he wanted more action shots, and since Peter couldn't really think of how to take a picture of himself picking a little girl out of a fire per-say, he decided to do one better. He was going to pretend that he'd convinced Spider-Man to wear a Go-Pro on him and film a 'Day in the Life of Spider-Man'.

So he slapped a camera on himself and said to it in his happy-go-lucky Spidy voice, "Hello, New York City! I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, reporting for duty." He gave a relaxed salute. "This kind young man, Peter Parker, somehow convinced me to strap this thing on myself and film what I do everyday. Thanks Pete! I'll give it to you later."

Peter did a backwards dive off of the building he'd been standing on, making sure to do more flips and tricks than usual for wow factor. He had a two and a half hours to find some trouble, fix it, and get to his second job, which was as a pizza delivery guy. Hey, whatever pays for the webbing.

It only took a few minutes to spot a mugging. It was like the trouble was coming to him today! The Bronx was positively covered in trouble. He swung down, and stuck himself face first above the situation on a wall. The mugger was a twenty-odd year old white man with silver hair, wearing plainclothes, trying to drag a purse away from a young redheaded woman. "Hey, Mister Not-So-Sticky Fingers!"

Before he could turn around, Peter shot some web fluid at the would-be thieve's hand, pinning it to the wall and making him drop the bag. The Web Crawler proceeded to pin the petty villain, who didn't seem all that upset to be caught, and took the phone out of his pocket and called the police with the bad guy's phone. "Hello? Spidy here. We got a mugger here on the corner of Colonial and 97th. Will someone kindly come and pick him up? Thank you, officer!"

Peter hung up the phone and tucked it into the silver haired villain's front pocket. He spoke to the heavily muscled mugger, who seemed a little familiar, but Peter couldn't place his face. "If you could kindly _stick_ arou-"

Peter froze. Suddenly he wasn't standing in some back alley in the Bronx, but in his living room, which was on fire. Sitting at the kitchen table were Uncle Ben, still riddled with bullet holes, Gwen, back twisted at a funny angle with blood dripping out her mouth, Officer Stacy, who had been ripped open by Doctor Connors' claws, Doctor Connors himself, Max, Harry, and his parents. Aunt May was sobbing, back up against the door, trying to keep it shut.

There were scores of people outside, screaming;

"Why didn't you save my son?"

"You're a menace, Peter Parker!"

"You could have done more!"

"Why did you leave us?"

Meanwhile, the people on the inside howled with similar pain.

"You could've saved me, Peter, but instead you were selfish, and all those people died!" bellowed Harry. "I thought you were my friend!"

"I'm sorry, Harry! I wanted to help, but my blood-" Peter tried to apologize, but was cut off by Captain Stacy.

"Excuses!" he barked. The wails of the civilians continued just outside his home. "Did you make an excuse when you killed Gwen, too? You can't even protect her, much less a whole city! I told you to stay away from her, boy!"

"I-I'm sorry, Captain Stacy, I'm sorry!" Peter screamed. "I didn't mean for you to die, I didn't mean for Gwen to-"

"Did you even try to save me, Peter? You let me go into the control room! You didn't catch me! And then you check out for a year, letting crime run through the city? You're evil, Peter! I never loved you! I wanted to go to Oxford to get away from you, but I guess I didn't get out soon enough!"

"Gwen..." Peter fell to his knees, tears spilling down his cheeks. "Gwen, I'm so sorry. I'm sorr-"

"You say you're sorry? You're nothing but a vengeful boy! It was your insolence that killed me, and now it's killing your aunt, too!" Uncle Ben shouted, gesturing towards Aunt May, who continued to sob, holding the door closed so the people couldn't get in, getting burned by the flames. "We should have left you for dead, like you left us!"

"Peter!" Aunt May cried. "Why didn't you tell me? I could have prepared! Now they're coming for me, to get to you! I wish that you died with your parents!"

"I would've never been proud of you, boy," his father spat.

"Dad!" Peter gasped. "Dad, I'm sorry!"

"Don't call me your father, boy! You are no son of mine!"

"We left because we didn't want a son like you," his mother glared.

"I'm sorry I didn't save y-" Peter collapsed backwards, passed out.

* * *

"His fears," the Scarlet Witch gasped, hand over her heart. "Are... horrible. Never again."

Pietro moved to comport her, but Natasha stopped him. She had been hiding in the shadows while the twins had play acted to draw Spider-Man out. "Wanda. Did you get his name?"

Wanda nodded, hand still on her heart. "Peter... Peter Parker."

Natasha nodded and turned to Pietro. "Quicksilver. Take Spider-Man to Avenger's tower. Lay him out on the couch, then come for me and Wanda. Be quick."

Pietro grinned at her. "Quick is my middle name."

He was gone before either of them could blink, taking Peter with him. After a second, Natasha asked, "Is his middle name really Quick?"

"No, it's-"

"I'm back, come on," he picked up his sister and speed off.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hmph. He's cuter than I imagined."

"Pietro!" Wanda slapped his arm.

"What? We were all thinking it."

Peter was lying on a test table, still unconscious. They unmasked him and took samples and prints to save in the data bases. Now they were just waiting for him to wake up.

"He's probably not even legal yet, I mean, look at that little face. Is he still in high school?" Wanda asked.

"Hey! I said he was cute, not that I wanted to put my-"

Natasha cut across what had been the start of a horribly weird sentence. "He's eighteen, nineteen in a couple of months. He graduated last year, and seems to be heading to college in the fall. His records, old teacher's notes mostly, say that he's smart but unfocused. Oh, look, you can see the exact moment he became Spider-Man by looking at his grades. Straight A's, until junior year when everything dropped due to absent days and missing assignments." She grinned at Pietro. "But, you know. Perfectly legal."

Pietro grinned back, but said, "I say one person isn't ugly. Just one. And suddenly I get teased. Merciless people, the two of you."

They laughed and Peter shot up from the table he was lying on. His eyes flicked around the room at a pace only Pietro could match. The brunette raised a still-gloved hand to his fave to feel if the mask was still there, which of course it wasn't. "Do you know my name?" He demanded, eyes hard, assuming a defensive position.

"Hey, take it easy, man. It's hard to recover from one of Wanda's halucinations. Just relax," Natasha said, using her sootjing voice.

Peter shot a hard look to the Scarket Witch. "You made me see that?"

She looked off to the side. "Yes."

"Why?" He demanded.

Natasha injected herself back into the conversation. "We needed to keep you from getting away, and it was the quickest way possible to get you down without a struggle. I hope you can look past this and reconsider joining our team, Mr Parker."

"After that?" He scoffed. "Maybe when hell freezes over. Nobody respects secret identities anymore. Have any of you ever thought that maybe I kept hidden who I was for a reson?"

"Peter, we just want you on the Avengers so we can make the world a better place. We're on your side, we want the same things."

"Maybe act like it, then. Where's my mask?"

The mask was handed to him and he was shown out of the building.

"I think we messed up our chances with that guy," Pietro remarked.

"We messed up our chances the moment we asked for his identity. Now that we're forcing him to cooperate, I can still get hin on the team, no matter how reluctantly," Natasha replied.

"Really? How?"

"I have his adress."

* * *

"Peter?"

"Yeah, Aunt May?" Peter called from his room. Since coming back from the Avenger's tower the day before, he had been trying to sleep off the emotional abuse severed to him by the Scarlet Witch, and biting his nails over them knowing his secret identity. He was still trying to plan how to get Aunt May to move and change her name without seeming suspicious.

"Could you come down here a moment? There's some people to see you."

Fear hit him like a wave. Nobody came to see him since Gwen died. He was all too sure he knew who was coming to visit him, and he wasn't happy about it.

"C-coming!" Peter wasn't religious, but he prayed to God that it wasn't one of the Avengers. He didn't want anything to do with those crazy people.

He plodded down the stairs, taking his time, thinking maybe if he took enough time, they'd leave Peter and his aunt alone forever.

"Peter? What's taking you so long?"

"Sorry. Jameson just won't leave me alone. Emails..."

At the bottom of the stairs he was met with his Aunt's face, split open wide with an excited smile, and behind her a brunette woman in a business suit, and the Pietro guy from the Avengers. Peter couldn't hide the grimace from his face.

"Peter, these people want to give you a scholarship! Isn't that just great, Peter? ...Peter?"

The young man quickly arranged his face so he looked less disgusted and more excited about the news of the 'scholarship'. "Really?" he grinned down at his aunt, hoping his smile looked authentic. "That's great news!" He scooped his aunt up into a huge hug.

He released her, and then strode over to were the two 'scholarship' people stood in his living room. While his back was to his aunt, he gave the woman a hard glare, but kept his voice open and friendly. "Hi. I'm Peter. You are?" He offered his hand to her, which she shook.

"I'm Maria Hill, Head of the Human Resources Department at Stark Industries. We're here to offer you a payed internship in our Sciences Division. We'd also be offering to pay for your college tuition, and offer living quarters."

"Oh my god," Peter whispered with quiet reverence. He couldn't believe that they had the audacity to even offer such a sweet deal. From his aunt's point of view, he'd have to be literally insane to reject such an offer, especially in their position. They were giving him just about everything. He set his face in the most deadly glare he could manage.

Pietro grinned at him, almost gloatingly, whereas Maria allowed herself a small smile, but more professional.

"Ho-how could I say no?" He forced a chuckle. "What kind of science?"

"Forensics," she replied, almost as if it was a joke. And Peter supposed that it was, as forensic science was crime stuff, and, well, Peter was a... crime fighter.

"Oh, sorry. I'm a bit more of a bio-chem kind of guy, so I don't really know if I'm your man for a position like tha-"

"Peter!" his Aunt May slapped him on the arm. "He'd love to take any sort of position you would offer to him." She gave him a pointed look, and Pietro raised a smug eyebrow.

"I'm sure you'll find enough Biology and Chemistry work for you at the position, and you'd be working very closely under Tony Stark-"

The door that connected the kitchen to the living room opened and out strode Tony freaking Stark, in the flesh, hands full of cookies. "Heard my name?" he asked through a full mouth.

All the fight went out of Peter's body. For the second time in the passed two minutes, he reverently whispered, "oh my god".

Tony grinned at Peter's reaction to seeing him, and then gave a kind smile to May. "Thank you for the cookies, Ms Parker. They're delicious." He then turned to Peter. "So, what do you say, Parker? We could put you to good work tomorrow morning. How's seven?"

Peter couldn't answer for a moment, and he stood there slack-jawed looking stupid until May elbowed him. "O-oh my god," he whispered again, more horrified this time. There was no way out, and now Tony Stark, his idol since he was three years old, was forcing the Avengers onto him. He shot a look to his aunt and then back to Tony. "Uh, yeah. Yeah. Seven. Tomorrow." He shook his head to clear it so he could retain some of his dignity, but then he ended up rambling. "Can I just say that I love your work? Not just the Ironman stuff, but, like, also your advancements in clean energy and the..." he went off talking about nerd stuff while Tony watched, amused.

"... that project that you did with Doctor Banner, too, is amazing. I still have newspaper clippings of it hanging up on my wall-" a realization hit him like a truck. Doctor Banner was an Avenger. "Oh my god. Will Doctor Banner be there? I mean, he does work with you and-"

Tony sobered up, and shook his head. "No, sorry, kid. Banner is taking a...personal vacation right now. You're stuck with me."

Peter straightened, remembering his audience. Pietro was snickering quietly in the corner. "Sorry for rambling. I, uh, would, um, _love_ to do the internship." His tone suggested that he would most not want to do any sort of internship with the Avengers, but everyone in the room seemed satisfied.

They spent a good thirty minutes talking about the fake details of his fake internship. He was still pissed that he got roped into this all, but excited too. Despite all the crap he'd gotten from Wanda, he was pretty pumped about being an Avenger. It was only his biggest dream. He was just worried about working with the Scarlet Witch, and having his secret identity spilled all about. Oh yeah, and May figuring out what was actually going on.

"Ms Parker, can you get me the recipe for those cookies? I need to have it, they're so good," Stark said, smiling kindly at her. Once she was out of the room, Tony said in a low voice, "just come in plainclothes tomorrow. I'll give you clearance to go up to the penthouse. Just bring your suit with you, not much else." He smilled and slapped Peter's arm apologetically.

"If you guys ever show up to my house again, I swear I'll-" Aunt May came back, and Peter was forced to stop talking and force a smile on his face.

* * *

"Wow, he was pissed."

"Heh, yeah, but I think you made his nerd dreams come true, Tony," snickered Pietro. "Did you see his face light up when you came in the room? It was like Christmas for him, he didn't even resist after that. We should've started with you."

They all laughed.

"So you got him?" Natasha checked.

"Yeah," Tony grinned. "He's coming tomorrow, and every day after that." He couldn't help but laugh.

"Did you see his aunt's face when he tried to say no?"


	4. Chapter 4

"Okay, yeah, I get that, but how did you even get him to agree to sign on?" Steve asked. The part of the new team that was present for the day plus Tony were all sitting in the front room, waiting for the new guy to show up. Steve was about to leave on his morning run, which he had postponed so he could talk to the team before Spiderman showed up.

"I'll tell you later," Natasha replied, pushing him lightly toward the elevator. "You better leave now or else too many people will be out and about for you to run without being bombarded by fans."

"Right," he said, unsure why Natasha wasn't telling him but unwilling to skip out on a part of his daily routine. "Don't do anything stupid until I get back."

"How could we do something stupid when you're taking all the stupid with you?" Tony teased him, still wearing his clothes from the day before and rubbing sleep out of his eye.

Steven blushed and rolled his eyes. "Never should've let you watch my old movies," he grumbled as the elevator doors closed behind him.

* * *

"Peter, put some jell in your hair!"

"What? No way."

"Oh, come on, you want to make a good first impression, don't you?"

"Aunt May, I don't think 'Porcupine Peter' would be the best first impression on this crowd. They want me more for my brains than how crazy my hair looks," he said as he tried to fight his way to the door.

"Have a good day at work, sweetie! Call me on your lunch break! I love you!" she called to him as he walked out the door.

It felt weird, getting places the normal way. Actually taking the subway. Being a real person with a semi-real job. But he wasn't planning on getting used to it. No, Peter was ready to give these people the cold shoulder for all he's worth. Sure, it was always a dream for him to be in the Avengers, and sure he's been looking up to half the team since they were started, but it was a pretty low blow coming to his house like that.

He walked into the building, not really sure where to go in a crowd to people moving much more purposefully. He had no idea where to go, so he nervously approached the receptionist's desk. He waited for her to get off the phone before trying to interrupt her.

"Uh, h-hi, this is my first day here, and I, uh, don't really know where to go. Um-"

She gave him a pretty smile. "No problem. What's your name, sir?"

"Peter Parker."

She plugged his name into her computer and her eyebrows went up. "Oh. You have high clearance. Um, you're supposed to report to the penthouse to see Tony Stark. Uh, take that elevator right over there-" she pointed. "and the computer will scan your DNA as you walk in to see if you're allowed access up, and then yeah. Just tell it you want to go to the penthouse and you'll be set."

"Oh, okay, thank you, Ms..." Peter checked her name tag. "Griffith. Have a nice day." Peter smiled and waved at her, making his way to the elevator. Just as he was about to click the up button when the doors opened and out stepped another one of his childhood heroes

He was so shocked seeing Captain America standing in front of him in normal clothes that for a second Peter forgot that he was mad to be here. "Captain Americ- uh..."

Steve looked confused, and Peter realized that he hadn't introduced himself yet. "Oh, uh, I'm Peter, Peter Parker."

The Captain's face relaxed into a polite smile. He offered his hand. "Steve Rogers. Sorry for my outfit," he said, looking down at his sweat pants and workout shirt. "I was about to go on a run. I'd usually like to make a better first impression."

He ignored Steve's attempt at a handshake. "Yeah, well," he said, trying to put as much contempt into his voice as possible. Once he got over the fact that he was talking to _Steve Rogers,_ he realized that it was probably him who authorised the whole of coming to attack him where he lived. Peter Parker decided that he didn't very much like Captain Rogers.

Steve's smile slipped off his face. After an awkward moment, he dropped his hand and said, "Uh, well, better be off getting my jump on the day. Nice meeting you, Parker." It was not nice meeting him.

Peter walked into the elevator, and just before the doors closed behind him, he saw Steve take out his phone and start to send a text.

When the doors reopened, Peter was met with the Black Widow, Iron Man, the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, some bald old guy, and some equally-bald-but-less-old guy, all staring at him expectantly. There were a couple awkward, standoff-ish seconds, until Natasha's phone buzzed, and she looked down at it and chuckled. Pietro blurred and the wind blew, but a millisecond later he was back in his original place next to his sister and laughing. Wanda cracked a smile, probably having picked the joke out of her brother's head.

Peter glared, not wanting to ask but wanting to know what it was about. He had this nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach that it was about him.

"Hey!" Natasha called out sharply to the male twin. "Next time when you want to know what I'm laughing about, just ask me! Don't just butt your head into other people's business."

"Sorry," he grinned, shrugging.

"Sorry for him," Natasha smiled at Peter. He said nothing.

"Glad you showed up, Pete," Tony said from behind a counter as he made himself a cup of coffee. "Want some?"

Peter ignored the question. "What's to say I don't just leave now?" He practically spit, putting as much spite in his voice as possible.

"Because we weren't joking about paying for your college and housing. Not to mention even paying you on top of that."

The fight dropped out of Peter's body for a second. "Oh." Tony grinned.

"Wait, hold up. Where's the rest of our paychecks?" Asked the younger bald guy in a playful manner. He turned to smile at Peter. "Sam Wilson. Also known as Falcon."

Peter nodded, putting the sour look back on his face. They were probably all in on the whole idea of forcing him into this. Especially Tony. He had shown up at his house for Pete's sake! Peter needed to keep his walls up with these people. But they were _paying_ him.

Natasha seemd to have realized that he wasn't going to be very civil with them, so she barked out, "Maximoff! Boy! Show Parker to his room so he can set down his stuff. Get him suited up and in the training room in five minutes. We're having our team session."

Pietro nodded and zipped over to where Peter was standing, already starting to prod him along. "Wait, hold on, my room, I'm not st-"

"Oh, come on, you move so slow. Five minutes until training room! We can spar and I can beat you, come on!" Pietro called, starting to drag him. Peter was so cool confused and appalled that he just went with it.

Soon, he was standing in a hallway with rows of doors, some with plaques that said 'Hawkeye' or 'Thor', and some doors that had no plaques at all. His door was at the end of the hallway, across from Black Widow's. His door's plaque was brand new, obviously just having been put in the night before.

"Honestly, everyone's kind of jelous that you got this room because it has a balcony for easy access because Steve said you'd probably be happier being able to come and go so he gave up his room so you'd be more comfortable and now he's moved out and-" Pietro rambled.

"Captain America gave up his room for me?" Peter asked. The information didn't match up with a guy who'd authorize what happened to him, with Wanda and everyone coming to his house to threaten him. "That's really nice."

"Yeah and it's funny because now he thinks that something crawled up your ass and died!" Peter looked at him. "His texting words, not mine."

"Oh. So that's what the text was about," Peter felt kind of bad now. Cap seemed cool and nice, and he was totally rude to him. Peter was ready to stop and think about how he should treat the super solider, but Pietro, agitated by the slow pace, opened up his door, stole his bag off his shoulder, and pushed it into his arms.

"Change into your suit, the bathroom's right there," Pietro pointed inside of the room to an in-room bathroom. Peter was amazed at his new room. He'd never lived a life of luxury, with his aunt, they had enough to get by, but never enough for anything more special than a nice dinner once a week. His new 'living quarters' were as big as his whole house, with a high ceiling and wide spaces. On the far right wall, a sliding glass door that opened up to a balcony on the edge of the tower. There was a full sized bed in the center of the room, a floor to ceiling sized bookshelf full of his own personal library, and a large bean bag for reading. He had two dressers and a bathroom that was connected to his room.

"Woah," Peter marveled. Then he shook his head, snapping himself out of it, and he saw that Pietro was grinning at him. "I don't have to change, I wear it under my clothes, I just have to put on the gloves and mask."

Quicksilver looked at him funny, and Peter felt like he had to defend his habit. "Trouble usually finds me, I have to be ready."

He nodded, and Peter waited for some privacy. "Well? Go on, put on your mask."

Peter blushed and started to take off his jacket and shirt. Something about the action of taking off his clothes in front of people was embarrassing, even though he knew that he wasn't going to be naked.

When he was done, Pietro hustled him through some hallways and down some stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator, and Peter realized that the guy never slowed down. Peter was lucky that his Spider abilities made him work a little faster than a normal person, but he still could come close to touching how fast Pietro went.

They arrived at the training room, and most everyone was already there. "Cutting it close, Pietro," Natasha called out. "How do you like the room, Parker?" Before he could respond, she said, "Last two in the practice room spar first."

Before he could react, Pietro blurred and he was knocked on his back. Peter scrambled back to his feet as fast as he could, but before he was even in a crouch, he was pushed on his butt again by Pietro.

Quicksilver stopped a couple of yards away, laughing. "Maybe I can kick whatever's stuck up your ass out for you, Little Spider."

Using the time Pietro took to taunt him, he shot a web, which the sliver haired man caught and used to pull Peter to him. Spider-Man used the momentum to place a hard kick on Quicksilver's head, and then used his chest as a springboard. Pietro got knocked back a few feet, and Peter used his recovery time to scale a wall. His logic was that Quicksilver's speed couldn't be used against him if he couldn't reach him.

Peter didn't make it up in time, and got dragged down by Pietro. He wrapped his arms around the older man's face and flipped him into the ground, throwing his body forward. Quicksilver grabbed Peter's wrist before he could be thrown, and took Spider-Man with him on the fall. Pietro recovered first, and started running circles around where Peter lay, making him unable to move and simultaneously sucking oxegen from his lungs. Out of nowhere, Peter stuck out his foot, tripping Pietro. The speedster fell hard, and Peter was up in a flash, throwing webs as hard and fast as he could, successfully pinning the other man to the ground in a huge cocoon.

Peter heard applause and suddenly he was aware he had an audience. He was breathing kind of heavy, which he tried to mask, and his head hurt from all the spills he took, but the whole fight couldn't have lasted more than a minute.

"Nice job, Spider-Man. It's hard to pin Pietro down, nobody but Wanda and Vision have been able to manage it," Natasha praised.

"Yeah, nice job, now help me up. How do you get out of this stuff?" Pietro griped.

"It dissolves after about an hour," Peter was interupted from saying more by his phone ringing his theme song. "Hey, Aunt May."

"Parker!" Natasha hissed. "No phones in the practice room!"

Peter put his hand over the speaker of the phone. "You're the one who made her think I work a desk job! She thinks she can call me whenever!"

"What was that, sweetie?" Aunt May asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing, I was just... one of my co-workers wanted me for something, I shoukd probably- Woah!" Peter leaped out of the way, dodging missile launched at him from a new comer to the room, someone who looked like they were trying to be a silver Iron Man.

"Peter? What's wrong?" His aunt asked.

"Wrong? Oh, nothing. I just saw the numbers on this project," he grunted, doing a one-handed cartwheel to avoid the next missile.

"Peter? You sound strained."

"Me? Strained?" He asked as he continued to dodge the projectiles being shot at him. "I'm just busy. Can I call you ba-"

"Oh, you know I just worry about you ever since your Uncle Ben died. I don't want you getting hurt out there."

"Oh, come on, Aunt May," he said, climbing the wall as fast as he could, squishing his phone between his shoulder. "Who would want to hurt me? I'm a broke, eighteen year old white kid. I sure am a pretty big target for all those bad-guys out there." The gray Iron Man switched from missiles to bullets.

"Peter! Are those gunshots? Are you okay?"

"Whaaaat? Gunshots? No," he said as casual as he could manage as he dropped from the ceiling onto the machine's back, filling the cracks of the armor with webbing so it'd shut down. "A car must've backfired. A couple times. Doesn't matter. You know how busy Manhattan streets are."

Peter succeeded in breaking the foe, the whole thing crashing to the ground. "Peter! What was that?"

"Oh, someone accidentally dropped their computer on the ground! I have to help them, gotta go, bye!"

"Wait, Peter."

"Yeah?" He tried to make as little noise possible when he got side-tackled by Sam Wilson, who was wearing wings on his back. He was lifted up into the air and dropped, and he would've at least cracked something if he hadn't had his web shooters. He flipped a web onto one of the wings and tore the man down with him with one hand, and with the other, he thwip-ed himself a secure position on the ceiling. He watched Falcon crash to the ground, rolling to break his fall. A blast of pure, red energy came at him from Wanda, which he had to swing to avoid.

"Are you going to be taking the apartment they're giving you?"

"Yes, I'm-" his sentence was cut off by him susessfully pinning down Sam Wilson, but his aunt didn't notice as she'd already started talking again.

"Peter? You'll still visit? And call? Don't forget about me just because you're all grown-up now."

Peter paused, and almost got blown up because of it. "Don't worry, Aunt May. I'm not just going to drop you like that. Can we finish this conversation tonight, though? I'm really busy right now."

"O-okay, just-just don't get to busy for little old me, okay? I love you, Peter."

"I love you _too_ ," he grunted, the 'too' sounding forced because he cracked his back doing a flip over a ball of energy. He got his webs over Scarlet Witch's hands, effectively stopping her from shooting at him further.

"Peter?"

"IloveyouAuntMaythebossiscomingbye!" Peter blurted, finally ending the phone conversation. He looked around, still in fighting stance, seeing that he had eliminated all of his attackers.

"Good for right now, Parker. Go hit the showers," Natasha said, almost smiling at him. He left without saying anything, but was stopped by her words a moment before he was out the door. "And Peter? You should think about telling your aunt you're a super hero. It might make things a little more easy for you."

"Not for her," he replied firmly.

* * *

"He's strong. He's fast. He took down the entire team while talking on his phone, and using entirely defensive moves. I'm not sure if I'm impressed by him or disappointed in is. Mostly the first, but a bit of both. We're not quite in shape yet, the old team-"

"Yeah, well we don't have the old team. We have to work with what we got," Steve cut across her, still in his running clothes.

"Yes, but if we could pressure Clint back on, and convince Tony, and if we could just _find_ Bruce, we could-"

"No, Natasha. They've made their decisions. And even if we did have them, we probably wouldn't've been able to take down the Web Crawler today. The only reason he wasn't a major player in the game so far was because he didn't want to be. Or conflicting school schedules, seeing how he's eighteen years old." Needless to say, Cap was unsettled by learning how old Peter Parker really was. The kid wasn't even old enough to drink. "And will you finally tell me why he was so angry today? He's always seemed like a pretty fair-temprred kid to me, but today he-"

"Had something dead up his ass?" Natasha smirked.

Cap's eyebrows worked together. "You didn't tell him, did you?"

"No, but Speedy Gonzales did."

Steve frowned, but then remembered what he'd wanted. "So why was he angry today?"

Natasha's grin faltered, and she told him in a resigned voice. " _What_?!" He exploded when she was done with her story. "You went to his house and threatened him?! I'm surprised he didn't slap me on the way in! This is completely ridiculous! You can't just do that to people, Natasha! Especially not with permission!"

It was her turn to get angry. "Permission? Last time I checked, Rogers, we were co-leaders of this little team."

Steve didn't stop his glare. "You know what I meant, Agent Romanoff. Since we are co-leaders of this team, I would've liked to have been at least told the game plan. Who's orders are you following?"

"Fury. He wanted Spider-Man's name by Thursday, I promised him more."

"Natasha," Steve said dangerously. "What did you promise?"

"My goal is a cooperative team member by the same time."

Steve ran his hand through his hair, exasperated. "Fine. Whatever. If he's as good as you said, God knows we need a soldier like him. Just don't do anything worse to set him off. And I want to see him in action. Training room after lunch?"

"You got it, Cap."

Steve started to walk off to his new room to take a shower. "Natasha, if this doesn't work, everyone's gonna wish I was left in the 1940's."


	5. Chapter 5

"Natasha? Has anyone told you that you've been acting a little weird recently?" Tony asked. The team, excluding Peter because he was cleared to go do is morning rounds and Pietro and Sam, who were having a Mario Kart battle in the living room, was all sitting around in the kitchen, not really having anything to do until the next practice at one.

"Shut up, old man. Shouldn't you be drinking your lunch right around now?" Natasha grinned. "Hey, Wanda, can I talk to you outside for a second?" When they were out in the hall, Natasha dropped her smile and said, "Has anyone else noticed?"

"Pietro suspects something is wrong, he cornered me and asked me if I was feeling alright. I told him I was having mood swings from my period, and he just zipped off. I don't think he's going to be a problem for another week, and by then it'll be mission accomplished."

Natasha nodded. "I'm not doing so well at getting the Spider-Boy to trust me. Do you think you could do it? Secure him as an ally in four days?"

Wanda nodded. "Maybe. But it would help if we had Stark, the boy practically worships him."

"Yes, but there are only the two of us, and our roles are vital. We need to get the boy to trust us enough by Thursday to go with us instead of Fury. I'll work on making the rest of the team seem bad, and you try to befriend him."

"Okay."

"Ready? Bright smiles, okay? Pretend I was telling you about something funny, whatever 'gal pals' talk about these days." Natasha reopened the door and walked back into the kitchen, looking as normal as ever.

* * *

Peter swung back into his room, checking the time on his new Stark watch Tony had given him. It had felt good to go back on the streets after having skipped his rounds last night and missed his 6 am this morning, even if he could only go out for an hour.

He heard screaming, so he sprinted out his room to one a couple doors down, labeled as 'Quicksilver'. He went through the open door, to see that instead of mass death and destruction, Pietro and Sam were playing video games on the TV Pietro had in his room.

Pietro let out a blood-curling screach, no words, just pure, hateful energy. Once he was done, he yelled, "Yes! Suck on that, goddamn Rainbow Bridge!"

Sam threw down his controler. "I hate this game. Why do you have to choose Rainbow Bridge every damn time?"

"It flaunts my superior reflexes." He looked up from the game. "Hello, Peter. Come to get your ass handed to you?"

"I came because I thought someone was dying."

Pietro laughed. "Play a round, I can beat you at this."

Despite himself, Peter grinned. He took off his mask and gloves, throwing them onto the bed. Sam tossed him his controller, saying, "Man, I'm done with playing this game with him. Do your best." He plopped down on the bed, content to watch.

Pietro picked Rainbow Bridge ("Big surprise," grumbled Sam), but Peter wasn't worried. Sure, in real life, Pietro was so much faster than him, but in the game there's only so fast of a reaction speed that he needs to meet. Peter figured he could match whatever that quota asked for.

The game started, and Pietro was flawless in all of his moves. He never fell off, or turned too much or too little, hitting all of the power-ups. Peter was trying, and his Spidy-reflexes helped, but he just couldn't match Pietro's control. They screamed and cussed eachother out and laughed. Peter finished every race in second place, until sometime thirty minutes in, while playing a dust bowl round, Peter got a blue shell.

"Oh. My. God."

Pietro's eyes widened. "No! No, Peter, you wouldn't-" but he had. All the speedster could do was watch as his Bowser cart was blast off the map and Peter's Yoshi sped past him to the finish line.

"I cannot _believe_ that you would just blue shell me like that!" Peter stood up and started doing the most ridiculous victory dance, wiggling his butt and jumping. "I thought we bonded over me beating you every time. But no. True friends don't _blue shell_ eachother, Peter."

"True friends would do it if they had just lost eleven consecutive rounds of goddamn Mario Kart," He replied, grinning. Pietro grinned back, and stuck out his hands as a signal for Peter to help him up. Instead of helping his new friend, Peter said, "sorry. I don't deal with fourth-place hoes." He high-fived Sam.

Pietro's mouth fell open in disgust. "Peter Parker!" his accent caused him to trip over the young man's name. "You're the worst!"

"Sorry? Peter Parker? Who's that? My name is First-Place Queen Ass-Slayer."

"Queen?" asked Sam.

Peter blushed and looked away. "Okay, yeah, that was weird, but King sounded wrong in that sentence."

"Oh, no, I'm definitely still gonna call you Queen Peter. All hail Queen Peter, slayer of asses," Pietro laughed. "Long live the Queen!"

"Fine!" Peter chalanged. "Then you're Looser Court Jester 4th Place! Blue Shell. Quick-Blue. Shell-Silver." Peter snapped his fingers. "Shell-Silver." Peter mimicked Pietro's accent, "I cannot believe you just silver shelled me, Queen Peter."

"You called yourself Queen Peter agai-"

"Shut up, Spectator Sam."

They all cracked up, only to be interupted by Peter's watch beeping. "Ten more minutes until practice," he announced, still chuckling.

"Oh, and you have so much to get ready. You still have to change into the suit you never take off your body," Pietro laughed.

"Hey, just because I wear my suit under my clothes doesn't mean I never take it off-"

"Wait, you wear your suit underneath your clothes?" Sam asked, eyebrows up in an amused expression.

"I graduated high school last year. I did half my crime fighting inbetween periods, the other half when some monster was literally ripping my school apart. Doctor Connors," he murmured the last part.

They started laughing again, so he said, "Okay, guys, laugh all you want, but the next time some physco giant lizard man rips through your Chemistry class talking about how much he wants to kill you and your family, you'd be gald you had your mask in your bag."

While they chuckled over 53 of 101 Things That Only Ever Happen to Peter Parker (yes, he'd made a list, but only in his head), Peter put on his mask and gloves. "But the good thing about wearing the suit is that I'll beat you guys to the training room." At his words, Pietro blurred, and suddenly he was in his Quicksilver getup. "Or I'll beat Sam, anyways," Peter corrected himself with a grin.

"Man, I hate being around all you powered up teenagers. Sorry I'm old and rely on machines to do what I do," Sam grumbled, standing up to go walk to his room. "Wait for me."

When Sam left, Peter asked, "Are you ready a teenager?"

Pietro scoffed. "No. He likes to round down because he's old. I'm twenty-four."

"Hmph. You act like a teenager," Peter grinned.

"Said the only actual teanager in the room."

They laughed and talked until Sam was finally done hooking himself up to his weird little contraption on his back. "How does that thing work anyway? Like, your arms are free to fight and stuff, so what's flapping your wings? Is it automated by your thoughts or what? Or is it more about how the rest of your body is moving?"

So Sam and Peter talked Physics while Pietro complained loudly about not understanding enough English for the conversation until the group bumped into Captain America, this time wearing his regular uniform.

"Spider-Man. Just the person I was hoping to see. Listen, I need to apologize for all that's happened the past few days, and I would like to say that I was not told about what was going on. I just found out about the situation today, in fact. You have every reason to be mad, but I urge you not to take it out on the Avengers. Natasha was just doing what she thought that she had to. I hope you could find a way to forgive us all."

"Oh, uh-" Peter wasn't the type to hold a grudge. Sure, he still tried to, the whole reason he became Spider-Man was to take down the guy who killed his uncle. Yet, he hadn't gotten very far. One day, he realized that he was in too deep, and he never caught the man who'd killed Uncle Ben. He still tried to hold grudges, though, the whole reason he'd even shown up today was so that he could be a jerk to everyone and never come back, but now he was moving in and had made best friends with two of the people he was supposed to be hating on the first five hours. Even without the apology, Peter would've probably forgiven and forgotten about the whole kidnapping-and-threatening thing. But that didn't mean that he didn't appreciate it. "Thanks, sir-I mean Ste-Captian-"

Steve chuckled. "You can call me Steve if I can call you Peter."

Peter smiled and looked away, blushing. "Thanks, Steve. I really appreciate the apology, and I'd like to say sorry for how I treated you this morning. That was out of line and-"

"Already forgotten. And honestly, if it were me, I would've socked myself on the jaw walking in, no questions asked," he slapped Peter's shoulder in a light, friendly way.

They walked into the practice room together, where they were surprisingly not the last ones. The silver Iron Man (or War Machine, as Steve called him) was always late. When he finally showed up, he wasn't in his suit of armor, but instead in a crumpled business suit. "I don't think I can do it today. I'm still trying to do repairs on the War Machine."

"Spider-Man! You're not allowed to fight War Machine anymore," Natasha called to him. "Don't worry about practice today, Rhody."

"I think I'm gonna take a leaf out of Tony's book. Make a suit fitted to fight Spider-Man," he mused to himself.

"Why would you make a suit just to fight Peter? He's your ally," Natasha asked, sounding almost nervous.

Rhody looked at her like she was crazy. "For the sake of being better. I shouldn't have had so much vital equipment reachable by his webs." He walked out of the practice room, muttering to himself about the properties of shark skin.

"If War Machine isn't going to be here, then we have even numbers. Two-on-two-on-two or three-on-three?" Steve asked, looking to Natasha.

"Three-on-three. Spider-Man, you're with me and Wanda." They all huddled together, making a game plan. Wanda was going to drop Pietro with her mind games and then Peter was going to web him to the ground, nice and tight so he would be out of the fight.

"Wait, hold up, isn't that a kinda a low blow? Showing him his worst fear when we're _practicing_? I don't know how free you are with that kinda stuff, lady, but it can seriously mess a guy up. I might seem all fine and dandy on the outside, but at night, it's gonna be a little more messy," Peter spoke up. The plan just seemed a little harsh to him.

"Oh, no, don't worry. We share somewhat of a physic bond. I get in people's heads, and since I've been around him for so long, I can just take him down without having to try too hard."

"Fine. But the whole idea just seems a little fishy."

When they broke, the other team was already ready, in a casual fighting stance. Falcon had his wings out. "We need a whistle," Steve grinned.

"Go!" Natasha yelled, and automatically Quicksilver was on the ground. Peter thwip-ed his friend into somewhat of a cocoon, and stuck him up on a wall.

"I hate you, Parker," he griped, trying to tug his way out.

"I wouldn't, if I were you. It's a long way to the floor."

"And I'm the juiciest fly you're ever gonna catch," he said with an exaggerated wink.

He patter the other man's face. "You're weird." Peter then threw himself back into the fight, swinging around the room. Falcon flew up to get him, but then ended up chasing him around the room, until Spidy decided to flip around and land on Falcon's back. Before Sam could flip around, Peter pressed a button on his flight pack and the wings retracted. They fell from the sky, but Peter wasn't worried. He shot up webs to the ceiling while he held onto Sam's body with his legs. After he made a sufficient lifeline, Peter stuck it onto Sam's back, leaving him to hang like a pinata.

"Hey, hey, hey, Sam," Peter grinned. "stick around."

"I will kill you. Not even joking. I'll take you down."

"When you get down, of course."

Peter allowed himself to fall back to the floor, landing on his feet, his fingertips coming forward on the floor. Cap had taken out the Black Widow and Scarlet Witch, which left it to be a one-on-one match between a boy spider and the greatest soldier to ever live.

Without warning, Captain America threw his shield hard and fast, Peter barely having time to dodge it, but he managed to get his webs in it in time to pull it off its course, yanking it around in a circle, hoping to hit the Captain with it. Steve jumped over his swinging projectile, and while Peter was off balance trying to bring the sheild back, he punched the teenager in the face.

Peter flew back, crashing into the wall. "Too much focus on the weapon, not enough on the guy with it," Cap taught.

"Ungh," Peter replied, shaking his head clear.

When the Captain was close, Peter shot webs into his eyes, and swiped the soldier's feet out from underneath him. While he was down, Spider-Man climbed up the wall, and satisfied himself to cling upside-down. "Need me to call Life-Alert, Cap? It seems that you've fallen and can't get up."

He got a resounding chuckle throughout the room, and Peter felt the need to apologize. "Sorry. I'm usually alone when I do this. It's a running commentary." He swirled his finger in circles, trying to give a visual on what he was trying to say.

"Ugh, it's gonna suck to have you on the coms," Pietro grumbled.

"Tony had the same problem," The Captain said, getting up and calling his shield over to him with the magnets on his arm. "Don't toy with the enemy, Peter. You should've webbed me while I was dazed. Don't try to talk, just get me."

"Cap likes to best the crap out of people before he tells his jokes. Makes sure he has the last word," Sam laughed.

"Yeah, well," without pausing, he launched his sheild as hard as he could, knocking Peter right out and off the wall. "Gives me time to think of what'll be funniest."

* * *

"So he's moving in tomorrow morning?" Tony asked, leaning up against the counter. They were seamingly alone in the kitchen, Steve eating dinner while Tony sipped coffee out of his cat mug.

"First thing. He's trying to find some way to doge his aunt helping him move in, you know, because of where we put him to live and stuff, but other than that there are no complications. He's spending the weekends back home, but only because his aunt is a little protective of him."

"Wow. I can't believe he's so on board with all of this. Especially after all Nat put him through."

Steve swallowed his bite of food before responding. "Yeah. He's a pretty forgiving kid. Trusts pretty quickly, too. 'Suppose it comes with his background. He tries really hard to not be, though. You can tell."

"Yeah. How is he with Natasha?"

"Fine, I guess. Any reason for him to not be?"

"I don't know. She's just been acting pretty weird lately. Haven't you noticed anything different?"

Steve considered it for a moment. "I just thought that she was hung up about Banner leaving."

Tony almost laughed. "Natasha? Being hung up over some guy? Not her style. Plus, she was fine until like a week ago."

"Now that you mention it, yeah, she has been a little off. She hasn't made a single joke about my age in three whole days. What do you think is wrong with her?"

Tony shrugged. "Who knows? She always plays her cards so close to her chest. At first I thought that it was some secret mission tearing at her conscience, but then I remembered she didn't have one. And all her moves are just becoming more and more sloppy. You're closer to her than anyone else on the team now that Clint and Bruce are gone, you know how she operates. I just don't think that knocking a kid out and forcing info out is her style, she's much more of a slowly-work-it-out kind of gal," Tony paused for a second. "I don't know," he added as an afterthought.

"No, I see where you're coming from. You're right, this isn't her. Have you checked her DNA? Make sure she wasn't just a decoy?"

"Of course I ran her DNA, but she's clean."

"Mind control? Maybe we should run her for that."

Tony rolled his eyes. "You can just run someone for mind control, Steve. Or, at least, you can't just run someone for mind control without them knowing you think something's taken a hold of their mind." Tony rubbed his eyes. "Clint would know right away. This kind of violence to a potential team member would've never happened with the old group."

"You were apart of the old group," Steve reminded him, somewhat wistfully.

"Yeah. But it was my time to retire. I'm too old for hero work anymore. My mind will always be of assistance, but my body... I took off the suit, Steve. I kind of like it off."

Steve sighed, rubbing his face. "Maybe we should call back the Vision."

"And what? Call off his feild trip with Thor? This could be nothing, you know."

"Or it could be very, very something," Steve replied, running his hands through his hair.

"You're going to go bald if you keep doing that."

"Bald at 95," Steve mused with a smile. "Maybe it's time."

They both smiled, but their smiles only his their worries.


	6. Chapter 6

"They suspect us. Is there any possible way to move the plan forward?"

"No, we've already accelerated it as much as we can, reinforcements come Thursday, no sooner. You have to destroy Spider-Man's trust in everyone else very quickly, or else we're dead."

"Okay, but why Spider-Man? Why not Captain America? He took down Peter Parker, he's a better soldier!"

"Spider-Man could've had him, with more training. Besides, who are we to question what the King says? He wants Spider-Man, so we bring Spider-Man!"

"We should-"

"Shh. I hear someone coming. It would not be wise to talk about our plans anymore. Just pretend everything is fine, and get Spider-Man! And remember, sister," Natasha gave the other super hero a hard look. "Don't be hesitaint to control the minds of those around you to get what you want."

* * *

"Tell me about your co-workers. Are they nice? Did you make any friends?" his Aunt May asked, trying to sound casual.

"Uh, nice? Not so much nice, but yeah, I made a few friends," Peter said as he packed his things into boxes. It wasn't until he started packing did he realize how much stuff he owned. Pictures dominated most of his possessions. He had boxes of them, pictures of Gwen, pictures of his parents, animals, trees, shots of the city.

"Tell me about your friends? Any girls?"

Peter blushed. "Uh, no, not really. There are only two girls on the team, and we're not really that friendly. Uh, I made good friends with this guy Pietro, and then his friend Sam. And then the Co-Captain of the team, Steve. Kind of." It's a little hard to be best buddies with a living legend.

"Pietro? That's a bit of an odd name."

"Oh, yeah, he's from Slovakia. Some of the team is coming to help me move, because we all live in the same building."

"Oh, yeah? Who's all coming?"

"Pietro, his sister Wanda, and Sam." They were the least likely for Aunt May to recognize them.

"Are you sure that's enough people, Peter? I can take the day off today and help you-"

"No, Aunt May. We got it. Pietro's a real quick worker, he could do it all by himself if he wanted."

"O-okay, Peter, but I'm still going to help you guys pack the car."

Peter chuckled. "Okay. They should be here about-" the doorbell rang. "Now." It rang a few more times. "Pietro!" Peter called, knowing that he'd hear him through the thin walls of the Parker home. "I'm coming! No need to ring the doorbell again!"

The ringing instantly ceased and Peter laughed. He jogged down the stairs to the front door, where his three teammates stood.

Pietro walked right in, followed by a more tentative Wanda and Sam. "Hey, guys," Peter grinned. "Pietro, you've been here before, you little asshole."

Before Pietro could respond with something witty, May's voice carried down from upstairs. "Who's an asshole?"

Pietro and Sam, two world-renouned superheroes who have literally killed people, started giggling. "Uh, nothing, Aunt May! We'll be up in a second." Peter lowered his voice to a stage whisper, and his face grew dark and serious. "If you guys even breathe a word about the part of my life that involes you guys, I will personally assist you to your jorney upstairs. You work a boring desk job in a cubical next to mine, and we sometimes share notes. Got it?"

Before getting a slightly scared 'yes' from any of them, Peter drew himself up to full hight and slapped on a grin. "Now let's go pack some boxes!"

While they moved, Peter tried his best to direct the conversation away from work, but his aunt seemed determined to squeeze information about the job from his friends.

They all looked uncomfortable with all the questions, because they didn't know exactly what Peter told her. If it weren't for Wanda's ability to pick thoughts out of people's minds, Peter probably would've given himself an aneurysm.

Packing the boxes into the "company car" was quick work, mostly because of Pietro. Everything went as smooth as possible, and Peter was happy that his aunt got to see him with people again, after those long months of nothing when Gwen died.

Just as everything was packed and they were about to leave, Pietro's face took a glass-like quality for a second, before snapping into a grin. "So," he said, sauntering up to Peter and his aunt. "Ms Parker. Don't you think it's a little weird that Peter just got this internship out of nowhere? Like, he didn't even sign up for anything, did he?"

Peter's eyes grew wide and he shot Pietro a warning glare. His mind started going through different ways to get out of the situation, but Aunt May was already responding. "Um, yes, of course. But Peter was always such a good boy in school, and his father was so big in the science community, so I just figured that you guys found him that way..." Her eyes were big and worried, looking at Peter.

Peter let out a nervous chuckle. "Y-yeah. I guess it was because of dad then. Hey, Pietro, let's go now. Don't want to be late for my second day." Peter patted Pietro on the back, hard, trying to lead him away from his aunt, shooting him betrayed looks.

"Oh, no. I remember why me and Wanda were chosen to get this job. They don't really look at school records or lineage, it's more about what you've done. For the community." Now Pietro had a wicked grin. Peter was frozen, shocked by disbelief that Pietro was actually doing this.

"Peter?" Aunt May asked, confused. "You didn't tell me you've been doing any community service?"

"Sometimes the community doesn't see it as a service," Pietro said, interrupting whatever lie Peter was about to say. "In fact, sometimes they call him a 'menace'. But lucky for him, our _team_ thinks he's quite 'amazing'."

Aunt May's eyes darted to Wanda's face, then to Sam, and back to Pietro. Peter could see something click in her brain. She finally looked at Peter, understanding in her eyes. "P-peter? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Aunt May-"

She held up her hand, pausing her nephew's words. "No. I don't want to hear excuses. This explains everything. The lying, the staying out late, the disappearing, the constant bruises and cuts that heal too fast-Peter." Her tone changed from shaky and scared to low and dangerous. "Peter. What actually happened to Ben?"

"Aunt May, can we talk about this later? Please I-" Peter sounded like he was in pain. A lump crawled up his throat, making it difficult to talk straight.

"No!" she thundered. "We will talk about this now!"

"Please, Aunt May. I'll tell you everything. Just please, inside." Peter's voice cracked somewhere in the middle of the statement, and the vulnerability that shone through softened his aunt somewhat, and she angrily obliged.

When she was safely inside, Peter whipped around to face Pietro, his eyes blazing. The sadness was still there, but it was crowded out by rage. "You," he practically spit. "I cannot _believe_ that you would tell my aunt like that! Do you not have a brain? You can't even begin to understand what kind of pain you just caused her! Leave! If we ever meet again, I will show you the kind of pain you have given her. Pray that I never see you again!"

"Sorry, Pete. I was just acting on Cap's orders. He thought she had the right to know." He replied, backing away to the car.

"I'll deal with Cap later. Bye, Pietro. Go on! Leave!" Peter was livid, causing Wanda, Sam, and Pietro all to scramble into the car, driving away from the powerful teen's rage.

* * *

"What the _FUCK_ were you thinking, Maximoff! Cap never gave that order!" Sam screamed at Pietro as they drove to the tower to report what had happened. Wanda stayed silent.

"So," he replied irritability. "She needed to know."

"Yes, she did! But not like that! Do you realize that you've just made an enemy of one of the strongest super heroes on the planet? When Cap finds out what you did, I'll be surprised if you're still on the team. Natasha is going to kill you. And Tony! Tony loved Peter. Now Peter's probably made the Avenger's his number one enemy."

Wanda looked out the window and grinned.


	7. Chapter 7

"Maximoff. What the _hell_ where you thinking?" Captain Rogers asked, voice hard. His arms where crossed, and he was standing a little too close for Pietro to be comfortable.

However, Pietro didn't seem to mind. In fact, he seemed a little out of it.

"Um," he said after a second, startled. Tony watched him, boiling with anger but somehow keeping his calm. He was surprised. Pietro's reactions were slow. "I-uh, I wasn't, sir, I'm sorry, sir."

"You're damn right you're sorry," Cap growled. "Tell me again what he said. I need to know if we could somehow fix what you've broken."

So Pietro stammered- _stammered?_ Tony thought. Pietro doesn't stammer- out what Peter had said. Even watered down so the Captain wouldn't kill him, it was pretty bad.

Steve took a step back and ran his hand over his face. "So. You created a mortal enemy out of one of the few people who can physically beat you, and then he promised if he ever saw you again, he would beat you." He looked over and made eye contact with Tony, and Tony nodded to him.

"Hey, Pietro," Tony said. "Catch."

While Pietro's attention was on Tony, ready to catch whatever it was, Steve came from the side and tackled him. Pietro, since his first time reciving his powers over speed, was too slow. Cap had him pinned and was barking out orders to the rest of the people in the kitchen. "Sam! Restrain Widow! Rhodes, the Witch!"

Sam was a good fighter, but few forces in the world can restrain the Black Widow. Before he had even gotten close enough to touch her, she kicked him hard in the face, taking him down. She jumped out of a nearby window, disappearing.

"Falcon!"

Sam scrambled up to his feet and jumped out the window after Natasha. "In pursuit."

Rhody was more successful, as he had been standing behind Scarlet Which when Cap gave the order, able to take her by surprise and knock her unconscious. When she slumped, Pietro's body stopped thrashing.

Steve nodded at him, and from on top of Pietro, commanded, "War Machine, find Black Widow and aid Falcon in bringing her back. Subdue, do not kill, she's not herself."

Rhody nodded back and followed out the window.

"What the hell? Steve what areyoudoing on top of me?" Pietro asked, saying the words so fast they could barely understand him, as if he was having a sudden flow of speed and was unable to regulate his speach.

"Quicksilver? What do you remember of the past hour?" Tony asked.

He cursed in Slovakian. "Wanda isn't Wanda right now," he said when he was done.

"Yeah. We noticed," Captain said. "Niether is Widow. What do you remember from Parker's house until now?"

Pietro's face turned funny, like he'd eaten something sour. "Everything was going smoothly until we were about to go, and then I was suddenly not in control of myself, like I was in the passanger seat of my own car. Wanda had taken control, and hasn't let go until the connection was broken by Rhodes knocking her out." He was mad that they had hurt his sister, but also angry that he had let something happen to her that they had to. His anger dissolved in a heart beat, replaced by concern. "Oh shit, oh shit, Wanda, what's wrong with Wanda..."

"That's exactly what I'm going to find out," Tony said, walking over to Wanda's unconscious body, taking a needle out of his pocket, and injecting it into her bloodstream. "There," he said, satisfied. "She should be asleep for the next few hours, nice and convinient way to keep her from taking over our minds while we try to figure out what's got her."

"She can't take complete control over you, only influence decision making, but resisting is damn near impossible. Can you get off me now?"

Captain nodded and stood up, helping Pietro on his feet along with him.

"What are we going to do?" Pietro asked as the others moved to preform their duties.

"We're going to find Natasha, and then fix what happened. Go suit up."

* * *

"I just can't believe you never told me," Aunt May exclaimed, the second Peter walked in the door from yelling at Pietro. She was pacing in the living room, I'm the same spot that he had been invited (forced) to take a (fake) job at Stark Industries.

Peter was on shock. Two, three days had passed, and all this utter crap had happened. He'd been interrogated, forced to live his worst nightmare, kidnapped, exposed, had his privacy trespassed on, forced to lie even more to his aunt, ridiculed, attacked, and betrayed. Now a secret he had been trying to keep since he was fifteen was out of the bag, and his aunt hated him now. Below the surface of his numbness, true anger boiled. "I'm sorry, Aunt May. I wanted to tell you," Peter replied, how voice a drained kind of sad.

"Well then why didn't you! You made me worry and fret about what you were doing that had you coming home covered in all those injuries every day, but I wasn't even near worried enough!" she screamed.

Peter fell onto the couch and burried his head in his hands. After a couple moments of his aunt's angry silence, waiting for his awnser, he replied, looking up and stating miserably, "Ignorance is bliss." He rubbed his face with his hands. "Not knowing kept you safe. If anyone ever found out who I was... you would be protected. You didn't know anything."

"So you kept me in the dark so I could stumble around like an idiot?"

"You would've just scared you."

"I'm stronger than you paint me to be, Peter," she said, still angry but less shrill, standing over where he sat.

"I'm not."

Her face softend. She sat down next to him and put an arm around his shoulders and held him tight. "It's okay, Peter. Although I'm not okay with you lying to me, I understand why."

At this, Peter broke. Tears flew down his cheeks, hot and fast, and he hugged his aunt like a lifeline. She was the only person he had left in the world.

What was left of the Parker family sat on that couch for hours, crying and holding each other. The whole story had been told, including the part about Peter's role in Uncle Ben's death. This had brought on a new round of tears. By noon, the Parker family had never felt closer, yet still so far apart. Barriers that were in place for years don't fall in a day. But there was progress. It wasn't until nightfall that another ripple appeared in their lives.

At 7:26 on a Tuesday night, the doorbell rang and May Parker awnsered it. Peter was in his room, unpacking.

"Hi," Natasha Romanoff smiled. "I'm-"

"Oh, I know who you are," May replied. "And I know what you've done to my boy. Get out of my house!"

Natasha sighed. "I know what Peter must have told you, but he misunderstood. I am not his enemy. I never authorized-I never even thought about doing to what happened to him. I came to explain, but we don't have much time."

"I don't believe you."

"Please, I just need to speak to Peter."

"He doesn't want to see you."

"I don't think that's your decision to make."

May Parker's eyes narrowed. "My house, I make the decisions. Leave."

Natasha put her hands up, a taunting smile on her face. "Fine. But don't be so sure of that. Have a nice night, Ms Parker." She backed away and was gone.

There was a knock on Peter's window. He sat up, looked to see who it was, and closed the blinds.

Another tap on the window. "Peter, don't be silly."

"I think this is the first time I've ever delt with any of you "Avengers" and not been silly. I'm not speaking to you."

"Fine, Peter. Just-"

"Don't say my name. My friends know my name. People who know me, know my name. You are not my friend and you don't know me. Don't call me Peter."

"Fine. Spider-Man. You don't have to speak to me. Just listen."

Peter didn't respond, so she went on.

"The man you know as Steve Rogers is not who you think he is. He-"

"Okay, hold on, hold on. I know I said I wasn't speaking to you, but if you're going to try and get me on your side, you're going to have to try harder than that. _Captain America_? Come on. He's the only one of your ragtag team of physcos and liars that has actually been decent to me. If you were gonna throw it all on anyone, I would've just blamed Pietro. He's the only one who's done worse than you."

"I'm not trying to get you on my side, Pe-Spider-Man. I'm trying to tell you the truth, because to be honest, you haven't gotten a lick of it since you walked into Stark Tower. Captain Rogers has been hijacked.

"I don't know when it happened, and I don't know why, but He's been giving us some shady orders, one of them involving you. He forced me to do the things I did and then demanded that I tell no one. He has everyone on his side. He's been making me carry out any orders that would put him in a bad light.

"Peter..." she said. He didn't correct her. "He's been threatening me, Peter. I was so stupid. At first I did everything he's told me to without thinking twice. I thought he was my friend. He was the first person to be nice, to feel real. And now I've lost what credibility I have in our world. If he said the word, I would be hunted. He's got everyone believing that I'm the bad guy. Please, Peter. He's asked me to do something tonight, and that's what's made me realize how corrupt he is.

"Peter... He's asked me to kill you."

" _What_? _Kill_ me? That's ridiculous. He-he wants me on his team. I-I, that can't be true."

"At first, he wanted you to be a part of the Avengers, so he could have you side with him for when he... for when he takes over. But when you nearly beat him-"

"Take over!"

"Yes. And he wants you dead, because he knows you're the only one with a chance of stopping him. Together, we can stop him from hurting anyone."

Peter sat in silence. After a moment, he said, "Okay. I believe you. What do you need me to do?"

From behind the window blinds, the enemy smiled.

* * *

"Tony."

"Steve. What are you doing here? Have you found Natasha?"

"No. I stationed War Machine on Peter's block, in case she goes there, but Quicksilver and Falcon are still out there looking. Haven't found a trace. You said you have news on Wanda's condition?"

"Yeah," Tony said excitedly. "We found out what's wrong."

"Can you cure it?"

"No, not yet. But I know how," Tony sucked in a breath. "Steve, it's mind control."

"Well? Who's controlling them?"


End file.
